Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

Author(s): W Norman Brown
Publisher: American Oriental Society

Page 64

MRGĀPUTRA
JP carries four illustrations. The first (fig, 70) is the scene of Mrgaputra's awakening, and shows him seated at a balcony looking at the monk, who is passing by on the street below. In the top part of the second illustration (fig. 71) this same scene is repeated; in the lower part he is shown seated on the ground talking to his mother, who sits on a raised seat. In the third painting (fig. 72) the hell punishments are illustrated. In the top register he is being burned over a fire (stanza 49) and his head is being crushed in a sugar press, which here has driver as well as bullock (stanza 53). In the middle register he lies under a tree, from which fall leaves as sharp as daggers that cut off his arms and legs (stanza 60), and at the right is being roasted in an oven like a buffalo (stanza 57). At the bottom he is, first, on an impaling stake (stanza 52), then has his head buried in a pot while a bird with a bill of iron tears him (stanza 58) and a man strikes him with a cudgel (stanza 61). In the fourth painting (fig. 73) the king and queen sit in conversation; and below them, very small, is Mrgāputra saying farewell to his friends and relatives, represented by four of their number who face him.
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1 Cf. our fig. 146 (to Chapter 36).